Battlefield Of The Mind

In the past two days I have resolved to pay attention to my negative thought patterns,especially were others are concerned.
I can not tell you the number of times I catch myself thinking critical,negative things about those around me.
Total strangers can stand near me and thoughts come to mind like how could they wear their hair like that? or dress in those clothes? Be so rude? be terrible with their children and so on.
This morning I resolved that when ever these thoughts come to my mind I will try and say something nice in my mind about this person then follow it with a simple prayer for them.
The mind can be a battle field and I must tell you today felt like a war zone.Every time I caught myself thinking negative thoughts about others I would try to follow my above routine.
By 5 pm in the afternoon I had had it.Not only was my head tired but my brain felt like a sore over used muscle.
All these corrections got me to thinking tonight just what a battle with the devil this is turning out to be and how this is going to take some real concise work on my part.
Now I know this is going to take more then one day and will need to be repeated until the habit breaks but I try to remember that all negative things are not of God.
Between you and me I must say that I did have one break through.
My husband and I were in the subway station in Boston today,trying to catch the T to get back to the lot where we parked our car.
There was a man,elderly and dirty looking, sitting up against a trash can playing his harmonica,the same song over and over.
Normally this would set my brain off thinking what a bum,why do the police let this thing happen? But instead I reached into my wallet pulled out a dollar and put it in his bucket and went back to standing waiting for the train.
Someone,walking by,threw something in the trash can but it fell over the top and landed in this mans' bucket.
At that moment I took the time to really look at this person face and thought "God help this poor man" then climbed the steps of the train and sat in my seat.
So in the end I got to walk away from a situation feeling better about what I had done and that no matter what this man does with his money it has no bearing on me .
Plus I was not judgemental about his appearance and felt pity for some one in need.
Now I know this will have to be a daily purposeful thought process but if I can correct even one wrong thought with a positive helpful one then maybe this battle of the mind will become easier and easier.